KUALA LUMPUR: Perodua's sales in the first quarter of 2021 (1Q21) rose 29 per cent to 57,911 units of vehicle from 44,977 units sold in the same period last year as production increased in meeting demand for all its models, especially the newly launched Perodua Ativa.

President and chief executive officer Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad said March saw a jump in the company's sales numbers to an estimated 24,433 units, underpinned by strong demand, particularly for the Ativa, which has collected 14,574 bookings since we began order-taking on Feb 19.

"Month-on-month, Perodua's registrations jumped by 47.3 per cent to 24,433 units in March 2021 compared to February 2021's 16,583 units," he said in a statement.

Zainal added that of the 14,574 Ativa bookings garnered so far, 4,345 units have been delivered since the new model's launch on March 3, and that Ativa's demand is currently skewed 67 per cent towards the range-topping advance variant, which is within projections.

This makes the Perodua Ativa the best-selling compact SUV in the country in March.

"We are glad that the Perodua Ativa has gotten off to such a strong start, and that we have well surpassed our 3,000-unit monthly delivery target in the first month," he said.

On production, Zainal said Perodua manufactured 60,383 vehicles in 1Q21 - a 23 per cent boost over the 49,280 units produced in 1Q20.

"For now, our biggest challenge is the semiconductor chip shortage, which is having varying impacts on carmakers on a global scale. We are working with our partners to find alternative supply while at the same time monitoring the situation on a daily basis to ensure continued operation of our production lines," he said.

He said despite the semiconductor issue, Perodua will still be able to meet its initial 2021 sales target of 240,000 units.

Perodua's 2021 sales target represents a nine per cent increase from the 220,163 units sold in 2020, and is expected to lead to a record purchase of RM6.5 billion worth of locally-sourced components this year.

Perodua also targets a production of 272,000 units (+23 per cent from 2020's 220,968 units) and 2.4 million service intakes (+20 per cent from 2020's 2 million service intakes) this year.

-- BERNAMA